Heavy rain to affect Texas and Louisiana coasts

UPDATE: The heavy rain from this low pressuer system is coming in mostly tonight. The rain now seems to be concentrated from the Golden Triangle cities of Beaumont, Orange and Port Arthur, Texas towards the east along the Louisiana border. Heavy rain will prbably continue through the night and into Monday.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the approach of Hurricane Ida which is expected to come ashore east of New Orleans Monday night and Tuesday. Some of the outer bands of ida will likely affect the coastal parishes of Louisiana. The rain from both of these systems will certainly drench much of the Louisiana coast over the next couple of days

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While Hurricane Ida is threatening the eastern half of the gulf coast, a tropical low pressure system is approaching the western gulf and could potentially cause flooding along the Texas coast from Galveston to the Louisiana border.

AccuWeather has been warning about this system since early last week, and even though it did not organize, it will bring some heavy rain along with some moderate to strong winds. This low pressure system is heading northward towards the upper Texas coast at the same time that Hurricane Ida is heading for Mississippi and Alabama. Essentially the entire gulf coast is due for bad weather over the next few days.

Storms May Cause a Disruption of Normal Oil Production Operations in the Gulf (AccuWeather)

Two storms are stirring up weather in the Gulf of Mexico that will affect the production of the energy industry beginning this weekend and continuing into Monday.

Ida will move northward into the southern Gulf of Mexico by Monday, likely as a hurricane. Meanwhile, a storm system over the southwestern Gulf will move northeastward and impact the central Gulf Coast states of the U.S. by Monday.

The system currently developing in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico is not expected to become a tropical system. However, it will create strong winds and high seas along the Texas and Louisiana coastal waters this weekend.

"This is going to be a three-day problem at the least," said Expert Senior Meteorologist and Tropical Long-Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi. "Seas 15-20 feet and a 200-mile wide area of strong gale-force winds 40 to 50 mph will mean a likely disruption of normal oil production operations in the northwest Gulf this weekend."

With so much activity in the gulf, wave action will be quite high. Flooding, especially during high tide, is a real possibility.

Houston Weather:11 News Weather Blog: Coastal Concerns (KHOU)

The Gulf is like a bathtub so imagine you agitate the water int he middle of the tub. Eventually, some of it will spill over the side. Something similar will happen as the low moves up; it will push the tides higher along the coast and some of that water could cover low-lying roads on the west end of Galveston and the Bolivar peninsula. Remember that last year's Hurricane Ike washed away parts of the Texas coast, so higher tides could lead to flooding in those areas.